Categories
Documentary

‘Soccer Shrines’ (2010) – stadiums as places of fan worship

Soccer Shrines is a series that covers fans and their football stadiums across 3 continents, selecting the better-known clubs in a country. Produced for the Canadian market in 2010, it’s a sort of travelogue. I say “sort of”, because you don’t really see much of the country that is visited, so you aren’t inspired to travel there.

Categories
Romance

‘A Winning Team’ (2023) is all about love

The Hallmark Channel produces as many as 100 films in a year, and A Winning Team may be its only soccer movie, ever. Like most Hallmark films, it’s also about how love of family plus a little romance pull the lead lady footballer back to a real life.

Categories
Documentary

#WeCAN docuseries (2022) sends a World Cup message

Canada Soccer’s #WeCAN World Cup Documentary Series is 7 enjoyable episodes that introduce you to the Band of Brothers who qualified for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. Fueled by his long love of Canadian soccer, Writer-Director Max Bell crafts a story of belief and build up that should convince Canadians they are destined to be a soccer-loving nation.

Categories
Documentary

Is ‘The Holy Game’ (2021) sportswashing

Director Brent Hodge did not intend to make a film about why men enter the Catholic priesthood. At the outset, he and co-director Chris Kelly thought their film would be a comedic pop culture documentary, a movie genre niche that is Hodge’s specialty. They envisioned fat friars sweating in the Vatican-sponsored football tournament known as The Clericus Cup.

Categories
Drama Suspense

‘Lethal Soccer Mom’ (2018): Not Worth Watching in a Lifetime

The last time I watched a film with Lethal in the title must have been Lethal Weapon 2, 3, 4, or 5. (Is there a Lethal Weapon 5?) I figured Lethal Soccer Mom was a click-bait film that would be a grind to watch.

Categories
Kids

‘Monkey in the Middle’ (2014) has one redeeming grace

This film is a reason to hate Canada—for producing a movie that is such a chore to watch. Monkey in the Middle—or as it’s titled on Netflix, It’s a Zoo in Here—has one redeeming grace. Graham Zusi (known as Saint Zusi to Mexico fans) is the inspiration when the main character takes a free kick.

Categories
Comedy Cultural Documentary

A buddy trip through Ireland and its ‘Celtic Soul’ (2016)

Jay Baruchel and Eoin O’Callaghan drive across Ireland in search of Jay’s Irish roots and their shared Celtic Soul. It’s a self-described collection of lovely moments tied together within the larger context of what it means to be an immigrant, to be Irish, and to be a fan of Celtic FC.

Categories
Drama

‘The Final Goal’ (1995) is a unique kung fu soccer movie

Is this worth watching? When Erik Estrada has top billing, you know it’s going to be cheezy. The best line in The Final Goal is when Estrada’s henchman tells him, “You should have been an actor.”

Estrada is the bad guy bribing 6 players to lose a semi-final game in the Global Cup. The only thing in his way is backup goalkeeper Steven Nijjar, who BTW is also a master of martial arts.

Categories
Documentary

‘Downtown Dawgs’ (2010) – a homeless team honestly portrayed

Brothers Kevin and Mike Scullion originally intended to create a fictional movie about homeless men joining a soccer team. Instead, they ended up documenting the Downtown Dawgs’ journey from a Calgary drop-in shelter to the 2010 Homeless World Cup in South Africa.

Categories
Drama

The reviews deserve to be harsh for ‘Fondi ’91’ (2013)

Fondi ’91 follows a team of 16 year old Jersey boys who travel to the small town of Fondi, Italy in 1991 to play in a soccer tournament. Some of the boys are very randy and keen to hook up with Italian fillies or stallions.